NEC Presents "Music Heals"

NEC Students and Faculty Present Music Heals: A Concert for Boston, April 28, 2 pm Church of the Covenant

Organized by Colin Thurmond, Free Performance Features Wide Range of Repertory from Bach to Bob Dylan, from Messiaen to Improvisation

New England Conservatory student and faculty musicians invite the Boston community to a free performance Music Heals: A Concert for Boston, Sunday April 28 at 2 p.m. in the Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St. “The concert celebrates creation over destruction, beauty over terror, and healing over hurting,” says organizer Colin Thurmond, a doctoral candidate who has masterminded such popular multi-disciplinary events as AcousticaElectronica. “Our city has suffered a tragic event, but we are not helpless. As Leonard Bernstein told us, we have a voice. ‘This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.’"

The concert reflects the wide range of music that flourishes at NEC and the many possible musical responses to the violence of the Boston Marathon bombings. Listeners can hear music by Bach and Bob Dylan, Messiaen and Bogdanovic, Falla and Paulus, as well as improvised works. Performers include NEC College and Prep students and faculty. The concert will be performed without intermission. Interludes will be provided by organist Thomas Handel, NEC Dean of Students, and by students from the poetry class of NEC liberal arts faculty member Ruth Lepson.

The program follows:

J.S. Bach: from Sonata in C, BWV 1005
Largo - Allegro assai
    Tessa Lark, violin

Dusan Bogdanovic: Three Balkan Miniatures for World Peace
Zalopojka (Lament) - Vranjanka - Siroko (Wide Song)
    Colin Thurmond, guitar

Bob Dylan: Ring The Bell
Sarah Jarosz: Peace
    Sarah Jarosz, vocals and mandolin

Stephen Paulus: Pilgrim’s Hymn
Charles Villiers Stanford: Beati Quorum Via
Frank Ticheli: Earth Song
    NEC Preparatory School Youth Chorale 
    Jonathan Richter, director

Improvisation
Mohammadi: Beloved of Old Days
    Nima Mohammadi, setar
    Vessela Stoyanova, tupan

Manuel de Falla: Dos Canciones Populaires Españolas (Two Spanish Folk Songs)
Asturiana, Nana
    Jennifer Caraluzzi, soprano
    Colin Thurmond, guitar

Piano improvisation
    Evan Allen

Olivier Messiaen: Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus from Quartet for the End of Time
    Natasha Brofsky, cello
    Evan Allen, piano

For further information, check the NEC Website

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory in Boston, MA offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to 720 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world.  Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars.  Its alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide.  Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC trained musicians and faculty.

The oldest independent school of music in the United States, NEC was founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee. Its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions.  On the college level, it features training in classical, jazz, contemporary improvisation, world and early music. Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, it provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, adults, and seniors.  Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and contemporary improvisation.

NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year, many of them in Jordan Hall, its world- renowned, century-old, beautifully restored concert hall.  These programs range from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to jazz, contemporary improvisation, and opera scenes.  Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Theatre in Boston.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Senior Communications Specialist
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu